Law & Order SVU “Zero Tolerance” Recap & Review

Law & Order SVU “Zero Tolerance” was a ripped-from-the-headlines story based upon immigration policies which caused parents and children - crossing the U.S./Mexican border without proper documentation - to be separated and detained, with no meaningful procedures in place to properly reunite them. The Trump administration’s one-size-fits-all policy of zero tolerance when it comes to the treatment of undocumented immigrants created not only an administrative hairball, but it also has likely traumatized many children who were separated from their families. It was inhumane treatment.

We heard the detectives voice their opinions on this issue. Carisi seems to have a “let anybody in who wants to come in” attitude; Rollins is of the opinion that these people want jobs that Americans don’t want. Fin questions whether Maria really fits the political asylum mold, and things like public housing, food stamps, and Medicaid were not available to immigrants coming in at the time of Carisi’s grandfather. Fin is correct in that regard; my grandparents came in legally in the late 1890s – early 1900s and they needed to have sponsors and they had no public assistance available.  Fin is also correct when he describes how his ancestors came in, and their decedents are still fighting for freedom and all the benefits this country can provide.  Immigration is a tough issue, but this episode only glosses over it by taking one child and one instance and fixing one problem. At the end of the episode, they hint to the magnitude of the problem. Sadly, we really don’t get a feel for the real administrative nightmare and the trauma of the families that the zero tolerance policy has caused. It seems Maria has a lawyer, she could easily do a video call,  and Stone and Jefferies pull strings to work the system for a happy ending for Maria and Gabriella.  The drama was lacking. For once, it would have been interesting to see Benson and the team fail.

Benson remains too emotionally involved in the case, to the point that she has an outburst in the courtroom. That happens after she arrests a government worker for doing his job,  without consulting Stone before doing so. Yet again she ropes him into her crusade. I appreciate her passion to right the wrongs of this world, but she’s not a detective anymore, she’s management. She can still fight these battles but she needs to do it in a manner that is respectful of her colleagues and the system that others are forced to work with. Yes, the system is broken, and yes, helping one person is better than helping none. It left me wondering if it would have been easier for Benson to work WITH the agent from the Office of Refugee Resettlement rather than arrest him. Should Benson have called in a psychiatrist to talk with Gabriella to see if she should have been placed elsewhere first because of psychological trauma? Possibly that would have kept her out of the ORR system.

The moral of the story: if you have connections in this world, use them to get your own priorities addressed. Without Stone and Jefferies, Benson wouldn’t have succeeded in reuniting Gabriella and Maria.  Now Benson must live with the fact that her efforts did nothing to help all the others trapped in the system.

Rollins seems on the fence with her relationship with her doctor friend and father of her baby, Al. He seems good with Jesse. But when she tells him that she is pregnant, he goes right to thinking about being there for her if she chose an abortion. I suspect this is what helped Rollins to decide to keep the baby. Of course, we know there was no way it would be anything else as Kelli is pregnant in real life, so there was no drama here as far as Rollins' choice.  Rollins finally tells Carisi about her pregnancy,  saying she tried to tell him before but “didn’t know how.” I know they are friends but why would it be so hard for Rollins, an adult woman, to tell a friend and colleague? Are we supposed to think that he felt the relationship was more than friendship and he would be upset?

I did enjoy the line when Benson tells the detectives to take the government rep and give him his phone call…and a baloney sandwich. It was also great to see Carl Weathers reprising his role from “Chicago Justice.” (They really didn’t give that series much of a chance.)

The immigration issue is a continuing problem and there are varying, often conflicting opinions. Part of the problem is that immigration isn’t a “one-size-fits all” issue.   The U.S. is a wonderful country with opportunities for all. Some countries are hell to live in and I can understand why some want to escape from those places for a chance for a better life.  On the flip side, border agents must be cautious when children are crossing illegally with adults to be sure that these children are not being trafficked.  Some states close to the Mexican border are feeling the strain from undocumented immigrants on their support systems and finances.  Illegal immigration has been a problem for decades and will continue to be so until our elected representatives and government officials can find a system that works.  But it is not an issue that some bureaucrat can solve with cookie-cutter rules, so I don't expect quick changes.

Here is the recap:

Rollins and Jesse are at home. Dr. Al Pollack comes for a visit, with “apology flowers”. Rollins is annoyed and Pollack tries to connect with Jesse. Rollins has an uncertain but somewhat contented look.

On Thursday, September 27, a man has someone drive him to the hospital with a sick child. The passenger dumps the child off at the emergency entrance and orders the driver to leave.

Later, Benson and Carisi are at the hospital and they speak with the girl, Delilah. She doesn’t recall how she got there, she says uncle Luke, who is not really her uncle, gave her pills. She says he sent her on a date with one of her friends. He never makes her go back if she doesn’t want to and he loves her. She asks that they not take him away.

Back at SVU, the detectives discuss what they know and look at the camera footage of Delilah being dumped. They work to find the driver who seems to be from Uber or a car service.

At Rumarque Car & Limo on Friday September 28, Fin and Rollins speak with the driver. He wanted to call the police but he admits he is illegal. He got robbed previously. He describes the man who he picked up and from where.

As they leave the car service, Fin starts to handle the issue and Rollins takes offense that he is treating her like a ride-along.  Fin wants Carisi to meet them there. At an apartment building, Fin, Carisi, and Rollins ask the residents about the man they are trying to find,  and one points them to a man, Vince, in 4B, an Air bnb rental. They knock on the door and then when Vince opens it, they barge their way in and find a shoe that looks like it would belong to a young girl. Rollins takes a photo of Vince. They arrest him. As they take him out of the room, Rollins bumps Vince into a doorway on purpose and says “Oops.” Carisi picks up Vince’s phone.

At SVU, in interrogation with Fin and Rollins, Vince's phone, now on the table, begins to buzz. He says it is his wife Karen. They question him about Delilah. The caller now shows as Billy, his son. He apologizes and says he didn’t know Delilah was on something and when she started zoning out, her took her to the hospital. They continue to pressure him and he admits he called a man named Luke he got while at an auto show. They tell him to call Luke and say he is hanging on to Delilah for an extra day and has another person who is interested.

Later, Benson and Carisi wait at a location in a car while Fin waits outside. Carisi asks Benson what is going on with Rollins and she suggests he ask Rollins. He guesses she is pregnant. A man approaches Fin and arranges for Fin to come up and see the girls. The man has several young girls and one is in a cage. Luke says she is not on the menu yet. Benson and Carisi exit the car, and as Fin tells Luke he is under arrest, the others burst in. As they reassure the girl, Benson tries to calm the frightened girl in the cage.

Back at SVU, Peter Stone arrives as the detectives speak with the girls. Stone and Benson confer. Luke found these girls in vulnerable situations and he has them utterly manipulated except the one they found in the cage. She is afraid of the guy they arrested and afraid of them. Carisi takes Stone in to meet Luke Frances. He tries to give them a line of BS but they aren’t buying it. He asks for a lawyer.

Meanwhile, Rollins speaks with the terrified girl, Gabriella Sosa. She says she took a bus to the Port Authority. Rollins tries to connect with her, but she says she wants her mommy and she cries.

Rollins later explains she will try talking to her later. Two of the girls will go to ACS and their local precincts, the other three are on the way back to their families. Benson suggests they put Gabriella through NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), and the find a missing persons alert from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families. She was in foster care.

At the home of Kelly and Alan Wellbeck in Elizabeth New Jersey on Sunday, September 30, as Rollins and Carisi approach the house, Carisi ask Rollins why she didn’t tell him. She plays dumb and then admits she tried to but didn’t know how. She asks he now start asking her questions now and not to go all Catholic on her. They speak with the foster parents who ID Gabriella from a photo.
They explain Gabriella is very distrustful of Americans; she came to them after she came across the border and the government separated her from her mother.

Back at SVU, the Wellbecks explain to Benson how Gabriella came across the border with her mother and how she was taken out of her mother’s arms. She was taken to a detention facility and they registered as a temporary foster family. They tried to contact her mother Maria but they could not connect. They think Gabriella tried to get back to Texas.

Meanwhile, Rollins and Fin try to get Gabriella to talk. She misses her mother. Rollins explains when her mother came across the border she broke the law but Gabriella did nothing wrong.

Afterward, Rollins and Fin confer with Benson. Benson says they have an obligation to notify the Office of Refugee Resettlement but Fin says they will send her to a tender age resettlement. Rollins suggests that she take her, and when Benson says she can’t do that, Rollins says Benson did with Noah. Benson says that is very different, but Rollins counters not much. Rollins asks to remember what happened with the last girl they let walk out of there, and Benson reiterates Rollins can’t take her. Carisi enters and say they tracked down Maria Sosa’s immigration lawyer, she is in a detention center, and thinks he can set up a video call with Maria.

Later, in a video call with Maria, she mentions how she came from Guatemala and those awful conditions. She gave money to a coyote to get them there but he left them at the Mexican border and she was arrested and they pulled Gabriella away from her. The lawyer says he is filing an asylum petition but that could take months of years and she will continue to be held there. They bring Gabriella to the screen and she has a tearful reunion with her mother. The officials make Maria’s lawyer turn off the video camera.

At Craft on Sunday, September 30, Rollins and Pollack are having dinner and she explains the case. She mentions he was good with Jesse and he says he loves kids. He got in debt from student loans. The waiter pours wine for both of them and Rollins pauses. She tells him she is pregnant. He thinks it was from the 4th of July. He says whatever he decides, saying he will go with her to the procedure if that’s what she wants to do. He drinks his wine. Rollins looks stunned.

At SVU, Fin asks Carisi how the babysitting went. A man comes in looking for Benson. It is Jeff Phelps from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. He gives the paperwork to Benson and says Gabriella will be housed at Fort Sterling. Benson worries she will be at an Army base behind razor wire, and he counters it is a dorm like setting, like summer camp. Benson is not pleased. Rollins brings in Gabriella but she freaks upon seeing Phelps and being told she has to be taken. She points at Phelps and says he was the man who took her away from her mother. He admits he was at the border when Maria was processed and Gabriella and other children were escorted to the foster agency in the city. He says that was the policy. Benson tells Fin to arrest Phelps and put him in a cell, saying he being charged with kidnapping in the second degree. She adds he abducted a minor and transported her against her will to New York City, a class B felony. He says she will be sorry, and she tells him to give him his phone call…and a boloney sandwich.

Later, Benson holds a press conference in the SVU squad room and explains the situation. When asked how Benson expects the federal government to react to this, she says that is not her concern. Another asks does this affects the safety of everyday New Yorkers, and Benson says that Gabriella found herself in the arms of a child sex trafficker. She says she was deeply traumatized. She sees Stone in the background and pauses, then says she has no doubt there will be long term serious emotional and psychological consequences for her. Stone walks into Benson’s office and she cuts the interview short.

As Benson walks in her office, Stone comments that she arrested a federal agent, saying he was just doing his job. Benson says she was just doing her job. He asks what is her next move and does she think this is going to stick. Benson says she is not that naïve. He asks what she is doing, and she states she has every media outlet in the city putting this story out there, she was doing it to make a point. Stone firmly states he doesn’t prosecute cases to make a point. She tells him she will find someone who will. She asks wasn’t he the one who told her that the only wars worth fighting for are the ones you can’t win? There is a knock on the door and Kim Caldwell, from the Department of Justice, enters Benson’s office, serving Benson with a writ of habeas corpus demanding Phelps be released. She tells Benson she will see her in court at 4PM. Benson asks Stone if he is in, then asks if she can show him what he’d be fighting for. Benson brings Stone into an interview room and introduces him to Gabriella. She drew a picture of her house in Guatemala. Benson tells him there are 3,000 more Gabriellas and she understands if he has to walk away from this, but she can’t.

In Federal Court, Judge Milbanks’ courtroom on Monday, October 1, Stone argues the case for kidnapping, but must concede the fact that Gabriella’s mother entered the country illegally. He adds that doesn’t give the government the right to forcibly separate her from her parents. Caldwell argues that in Flores v Reno the law says they can’t keep them together, and Stone counters it, that it says they can’t incarcerate them together and the state of New York criminalizes transporting a child there against their will. Caldwell says this was done under Federal law, but Stone says not Federal law, but a DOJ policy directives known as “zero tolerance.” The judge says the petitioner was acting in good faith and Stone argues that doesn’t relieve them of criminal liability for the abduction. Caldwell reminds Stone of the supremacy clause in article 6 of the Constitution which says Federal law trumps state law. Benson, sitting in the gallery, frustrated, stands up and asks the judge what are they doing here? They are talking about a 9-year-old child. The judge tells Benson she is out of order, but Benson goes on and emotionally states the government ripped this little girl out of her mother’s arms and somebody, somewhere ”Needs. To. Stop. This.” Benson is escorted back to her seat and Carisi tries to calm her.

Back at SVU, Rollins stays with Gabrielle who has noticed Rollins is pregnant. She asks to feel and asks if she wants a boy or girl. She says when she sees her mother she will say she wants a little brother.

Back in court, the judge says while the separation of Gabriella from her mother is disturbing and ill-advised, she says the Federal immigration policy overrides any claim by the state that a kidnapping has been committed and says Phelps’ arrest was illegal and he should be released forthwith. Benson is frustrated and Stone says at least they tried. She says they lost the battle but maybe they win the war.

At SVU, Rollins and Gabriella eat pizza and Benson, Carisi, and Phelps return. Benson explains to Gabriella she has to go with Phelps. Benson tells her she must be strong but doesn’t know when she can see her mother again. She asks they not forget her. He goes with Phelps.

In Chicago, Stone shares a drink with his former Chicago boss, SA Mark Jefferies, and after small talk, Stone explains Gabriella’s case and asks for his help. Stone states when he was a kid, his grandfather had a cottage in the dunes in Rhode Island. They would get up early and walk the beaches together. One morning there were many baby sea turtle hatchlings on the beach and the tide as going out and most weren’t going to make it. He told his grandfather they were going to die and picked some up and said this one won’t. Jefferies asks if the mother’s grounds for asylum are solid, and Stone says 50/50. Jefferies says he will see what he can do, no promises.

Back at SVU, Carisi asks if anyone wants to get a beer. Fin has plans to babysit his son’s kid and when Carisi suggest to Rollins non-alcoholic, she says what’s the point, after this Gabriella thing she needs something stiffer than a beer. Carisi thinks anyone who comes to this country and work for the American dream should be allowed to do that. Fin thinks political asylum is okay but just because Maria’s neighbor got shot by a gang doesn’t qualify. Rollins thinks with what Maria had to go through to get to the border she must have been terrorized. Fin asks who takes care of them once they get here? Separating kids from their parents is barbaric but there is still a problem. Carisi thinks immigrants can take care of themselves, using his great grandfather as an example, but Fin says he bets he didn’t have public housing, food stamps, and Medicaid. Rollins counters that most of these people get jobs and they are jobs Americans don’t want. Carisi recites what is on the Statue of Liberty and Fin says that is a great poem but it is all garbage. He says his people came here 300 years ago in chains and he still can’t breathe free.

Later, Rollins visits Al at his work (she pulled rank to find him) and says she is having this baby and doesn’t need anything from him.

Benson and Jefferies arrive at Fort Sterling to see Gabriella and when the guard says they don’t allow those visits, Jefferies gets out of the car and demands to see the CO. The guard replies he is not authorized to do that. Jefferies counters that he didn’t hunt through the mountains of Quang Tri for three years to be told by a baby-faced MP tell him what’s authorized. The MP gets someone on the phone. Maria is in the back seat of the car.

Inside the center, the children are kept in fenced areas and Gabriella is thrilled to see her mother. The guard asks to see the release orders and then releases Gabriella. She has a happy reunion with her mother. Benson asks Jefferies how he and Stone pulled this off, and he explains the supervising judge in the 5th circuit grew up in Chicago and they trained at the same gym. Stone threw together the asylum petition and Judge Connors pushed it through. Maria thanks them and Benson says “Welcome to America.” As they all exit, Benson looks around at all the other children caged there, who look back sadly. As she turns and walks away we fade to black.


Cast:
Mariska Hargitay - Lieutenant Olivia Benson
Ice-T - Sergeant Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Kelli Giddish - Detective Amanda Rollins
Peter Scanavino - Detective Dominick “Sonny” Carisi, Jr.
Philip Winchester – ADA Peter Stone

Guest stars:
Carl Weathers - SA Mark Jefferies
George Newbern - Dr. Al Pollack
Andy Powers - Jeff Phelps
Shane Patrick Kearns - Luke Frances
Graham Winton –
Yvonna Kopacz-Wright
Meg Gibson - Judge Edith Milbanks
Jennifer Regan - Kim Caldwell
Scarlet Daisy Lopez - Gabriela Sosa
Polly Lee – Kelly Wellbeck
Josh Tower – Alan Wellbeck
Rileigh Skye McDonald - Delilah
Ademide Akintilo – Chinia Iwobi
Zoe Sofia Garcia – Maria Sosa
Rudy De La Cruz – Diego Vasquez
Nancy Evans – Josephine Moscowitz
Geoffrey Allen Murphy – Guard
Matt Giroveanu – MP #1
Miranda ROldan – MP #2
Brandon Ferraro – Waiter
Charlotte Cabell – Jesse Rollins
Vivian Cabell – Jesse Rollins
Julie Lee – Girl #1
Kayciblu Wright – Girl #2
Azia Celestino – Reporter #1
Ruschell Boone – Reporter #2
Rory Duffy – Reporter #3






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